Do You Have Room for Anything New?

Do You Have Room for Anything New?

I’m a little intrigued by a new development in real estate – the “Tiny House” movement. I guess it is not all that surprising because trends tend to go from one extreme to another.

Everyone wanted big houses and then when the house gets full, the family goes out to rent a storage unit.

Look around town and you’ll find a plethora of storage facilities. It used to be that storage facilities were for people in transition – moving from one place to another and they needed temporary storage. Now, we all know people who have a storage unit to store things that won’t fit into their homes.

So the opposite extreme would be a Tiny House, I guess.

The Rule of Living Small Big

Instead of collecting more and more, people who live in small spaces often have a rule: If something new comes in, something old has to leave. Reasonable, right?

When you have too much stuff, not only is it hard to get around (think hoarders) but it’s also hard to make choices and decisions.

And in that lies a lesson for business owners.

Jack Canfield says:

“We can only pay attention to so many things at one time, and each promise, agreement, or item on your to-do list leaves fewer “attention units” to dedicate to completing present tasks and bringing new opportunities and abundance into your life.”

An “attention unit” is a bit that goes into your memory bank and takes up space in your head. For example, when you start a project or make an agreement or identify a change you need to make, you add something into the storage area in your brain taking up an “attention unit.”

Just like the sticky notes on your computer and the stacks of paper piled up on your desk distract you, the attention units stored in your head distract you, too.

And with all that physical and mental clutter stealing your attention, the pile of “incompletes” gets bigger and grows higher too.

Canfield admonishes us with this:

“The truth is that 20 things completed have more power than 50 things half completed.”

You know that all the half-completes are a distraction in and of themselves both mentally and in reality. For instance, two finished books are much more useful than 13 that you have started but not finished.

The reason this is so important, besides the obvious of divided attention and diluted efforts, is that in order to make space for something new, you have to make room for it. If there is anything new that you want in your life, you’ve got to make room for it – psychologically and physically.

Eliminate some of those things that are taking up your attention units. Set priorities about what is going to be your focus and act on those.